Fraunhofer Center for Assistive Information and Communication Solutions – AICOSJoana Raquel Silva, researcher at the Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS, was recently distinguished at the international conference pHealth 2014, held in Vienna, Austria. The study "Human Activity Classification with Inertial Sensors" earned her the prize for "Young Scientist Best Paper Award".
In her research, Joana Silva studied the machine learning techniques to classify activities of daily living such as walking, running, climbing stairs, sitting, standing and lying down, using a public dataset with data from the inertial sensor of a smartphone. Using smartphones with sensors such as accelerometers, the researcher developed several tests with a group of seniors aged 60 to 70 years, achieving results with an accuracy rate of around 86 percent.
The algorithm created is an important tool for the development of applications for monitoring physical activity, an area that has aroused increasing interest both by sportsmen as well as seniors, their families and caregivers. The research center Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS is already using the algorithm in the development of applications that can monitor various parameters such as walked distance, the number of steps performed, the kilocalories expended, among others.
The pHealth is an international conference that takes place annually and addresses the micro and nano implantable technologies for personalized medicine. For covering topics from medical services to public health, prevention, social work, care and welfare of the elderly, this international event has attracted scientists and professionals from around the world, experts in various fields such as medicine, computer science, politics and administration.